Chief Officers Reaching Excellence
CORE is a unique resource of networking peer groups designed exclusively for industry decision-makers. Since 1998, CEOs in the housewares industry have been using CORE groups as a sounding board and a special resource to help meet professional challenges.
View the membership brochure to learn the benefits of CORE:
CORE Meetings
Date: Thursday, June 5, 2025
Time: 10 AM – 3 PM CT
Facilitator: Dan Raftery
Location: IHA Office
6400 Shafer Ct, Suite 650, Rosemont, IL 60018
Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Time: 9 AM – 2 PM PT
Facilitator: Dan Raftery
Location: TBD
Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Time: 10 AM – 12 PM PT
Facilitator: Tony Kircher
Location: Zoom
Date: Thursday, April 3, 2025
Time: 3 PM ET
Facilitator: Perry Reynolds
Location: Zoom
Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Facilitator: Dan Raftery
Location: TBD
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2025
Time: 1 PM ET
Facilitator: Perry Reynolds
Location: Creative Planning
152 W 57th Street, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Time: 10 AM – 12 PM PT
Facilitator: Tony Kircher
Location: Zoom
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Time: 9 AM – 2 PM ET
Facilitator: Dan Raftery
Location: Zoom
CORE Facilitators
Tony Kircher
Tony Kircher began his career selling “Made in the USA” office products and consumer goods in international markets. He launched and managed subsidiary companies and joint ventures in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea as well as managing distributors and agents in the other key markets, prior to leading the start-up of Winix America – where he spent 20 years as its President.
Beginning as a “one-person” start-up he secured Private Label and OEM business at major retailers and with global brands in the household electrics category – and over time built an organization with a prime position in the air cleaner category. Kircher also led the subsequent start-up of a European subsidiary in the Netherlands.
His past responsibilities and experience included Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Project Management, Operations, Manufacturing, Logistics, Finance, Compliance, and Human Resources.
Kircher is a former board member of the IHA, the International Trade Association of Greater Chicago, the District Export Council of the US Department of Commerce, and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers; he is a former Chair of the International Business Council of the IHA (formerly HECNA) and of course a long-time member of the Chicago CORE.
Daniel Raftery
Dan Raftery has more than 25 years of experience as a management and research consultant for the food, drug and housewares industries. He covers a range of topics from specific supply chain operations to strategic business and industry issues.
Raftery Resource Network is a diverse team of independent professionals from consumer goods production and distribution industries, who solve business problems for suppliers, manufacturers and systems and service providers.
Raftery is a facilitator for committees, conferences and executive share groups…a writer for industry reports, white papers and corporate newsletters…a presenter at industry conferences and corporate events… and a resource for all stages of research projects from product design to delivery to corporate acquisition.
He has authored over three dozen reports on a variety of subjects for food, drug and housewares industries including Scan Based Trading, Invoice Accuracy, Unsalables Management and Direct Store Delivery, Category Management, Direct Product Profitability, Customer Frequency Marketing and Efficient Consumer Response.
Raftery Resource Network, Inc.
phone: +1 708-370-9933
rafterynet@aol.com
Perry Reynolds
Perry Reynolds has been involved in the housewares industry for almost 50 years beginning as a housewares department manager at a regional mass merchant, then as a buyer and senior merchant for a mass merchant, a supermarket chain and a national distributor, followed by a role as a marketing and product development manager for two branded housewares manufacturers and concluding with a twenty year stint at the International Housewares Association where his responsibilities included marketing, buyer recruiting, trade development and international services. He retired from his day-to-day role at IHA in the spring of 2017.
Since retiring, Perry has facilitated IHA’s CORE group in the SE US and beginning in the fall of 2021 assumed the facilitator’s role with the CORE Northeast. In addition to his work with IHA, in early 2002, Perry assumed the role board chair of Riverside Avondale Preservation, a not-for-profit neighborhood support organization in Jacksonville, FL.
1525 Partners
phone: +1 708-337-8312
perryreynolds4@gmail.com
